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“He told me he had always regarded the twins as ours and his last wish was for me to go to America and try to make contact with them. I don’t know if this will be possible but I will do everything I can to honour his dying request.”

Neither had seen twins Kiara and Keyara Wecker – who they had renamed Kimberly and Belinda – since they lived with the couple for just three weeks at their home in Buckley, Flintshire.

The Kilshaws had given the money to the six-month-olds’ American mum Tranda in 2000. But a custody fight caused uproar on both sides of the Atlantic.

British social services stepped in to return the babies to the US, where they were adopted by a loving family.

Alan was by Judith’s side as they tried to prevent the youngsters being taken into care and returned to America.

At the height of the court battle for the twins, Judith was branded the most hated ­woman in Britain.

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Mum-of-four Judith, who had two sons James, 25, and Rupert, 22, with Alan, and two older daughters, looked into international adoption after being told they were unable to have more children.

They brought the girls to Britain on six-month tourist visas in December 2000 planning to live in the couple’s seven-bedroom farmhouse.

They shared the house with Judith’s younger daughter, their two sons, six dogs, more than a dozen cats, two ferrets, a horse, a pony and two pot-bellied pigs. In January 2001 then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said action would be taken to stop the “deplorable” trading of babies to the ­highest bidder, and a shake-up in the rules followed.

On January 19, 2001, Flintshire social services and North Wales Police removed the twins from the Beaufort Park Hotel, near Mold, where they had been staying with the Kilshaws.

The girls were returned to the US in April 2001 and placed in foster care. Another set of parents eventually raised them.

Last August it emerged the girls had both started ­university in the US and were studying ­social sciences.

Judith said: “He had fond ­memories of them and said they had grown into nice girls. He was pleased at their success but made the point that they would have achieved the same if they had stayed in Britain.

“He never regretted that we bought the twins and neither do I.

“But he did regret the way Flintshire county council social services intervened. It is possible that all that stress around the adoption might in some way have contributed to his condition, without us knowing it at the time.”

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Former solicitor Alan became ill with breathing problems in February last year and was treated first in Leighton Hospital, Crewe, and then in the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Judith thought he would be out quickly but he was in a coma within two days.

She said: “He developed sepsis and it was frightening, I thought he was dying.”

Doctors diagnosed scarring of the lungs. He had a tracheostomy in March he and seemed to be fighting back but his muscles began to atrophy. In December Alan died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the same chronic lung disease which also killed TV star Keith Chegwin, 60.

Judith and Alan who married in 1992, and split in 2006 but remained on good terms. Alan even walked her down the aisle when she married Stephen Sillett, her third husband, three years later.

She said: “Despite our ­divorce I hadn’t fallen out with Alan and he was still my best friend. It is like a chunk of my life has gone. I told him he was a good man.

“He was always kind, ­generous and respectful. We met through a lonely hearts ad in the Chester Chronicle.

“If I had a problem I could always go to him, we never lost that friendship. We had become like brother and sister.”

The pair hit the headlines when they paid £8,200 to adopt the twins online, from America in 2000 (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

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Judith visited him in hospital every day and left Stephen in February because Alan was in need. She thought it would only be for a month or so but when she realised the severity of his illness she gave up her job as a cleaner in the Co-op.

His funeral was in St Helens, Merseyside and Judith plans to scatter his ashes at historic Llanthony Priory in Monmouthshire.

She said it would be a “fascinating” to meet and talk to the twins again: “I’d like to know how their lives went, what they’ve done, where they’ve been. I’d want to tell them about my life. I do think about them. Do they know about me and Alan, do they think about what happened to us?

“It would be a good, fascinating ­conversation. At least the girls have come out good. I’m pleased about that.”

Judith is living on her own and said it has its benefits. She said: “I now want to find my own life and find myself. My life has been a roller coaster but I think it is my time now.”

Judith has bought a dog, a three-year-old ­female French bulldog called Roxy but was ­considering adopting a street dog from Romania.

Judith Kilshaw hopes to travel to the US to see the twins (Image: John Gladwin/Sunday Mirror)

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She said: “The dogs are ­living in terrible ­conditions over there, they put them in death shelters. I am friends with some of the dogs on Facebook , and every night I look at them.” Judith said she and Alan had several heartfelt conversations in his final days and weeks.

Alan told her he never ­regretted trying to adopt the twins, despite the ­international outcry it caused.

Talking about the girls’ lives in America Judith said: “All we ever wanted was for them to have a good life.

“I still think they should have stayed with me and Alan.”

She still keeps faded photos of the girls from the brief time they spent with the couple in Britain.

Judith added: “I wonder if they’ve been told about what happened to them and about us?

“I’m glad they are doing so well, I only hope they do well. We always wanted the best for them.”